Buried deep within the weighty tome that is the financial reform bill is a pesky provision that will make it far more difficult for the public to monitor Federal Reserve actions.

The provision requires disclosure of emergency lending, discount window lending and other Fed actions to help troubled banks or individuals. Trouble is, these disclosures are only required after a lengthy delay. The Fed is allowed to take up to two years before it has to report what it did. The central bank can decide to disclose the details sooner if its chairman determines that it is in the public's interest.

A delay of two years is indefensible. Instead of protecting the financial system, such stonewalling will breed distrust within a public that is fed up with both bankers and their regulators.

While it's probably too late at this point to excise this provision — the whole of financial reform might be scuttled — Congress should revisit the issue in the future with an eye toward ensuring openness. In the meantime, we urge Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to err on the side of transparency.

Unfortunately, Bernanke has not been the public's ally in this regard. Bernanke has argued that working in the shadows is necessary to prevent turmoil in the financial markets. Bernanke argues that disclosure of Fed lending could be seen as a sign of financial distress, undermining institutions receiving help and discouraging others from seeking it.

Bernanke's insistence that the provision be incorporated into the bill likely was prompted by lawsuits filed by Bloomberg and Fox News, which were aimed at forcing the Fed to disclose how it helped banks during the financial crisis.

At that time, Bernanke opposed disclosure of short-term loans to banks. The court disagreed, arguing that Bernanke's concerns about investor wariness were too speculative to justify withholding information from the public, according to Rick Blum, coordinator of the Sunshine in Government Initiative, a coalition of journalism organizations including the Associated Press and the American Society of News Editors.

The court got it right. In the middle of a financial crisis — think Lehman Brothers' meltdown — a delay of a few days or even weeks might be warranted. But a delay of up to two years is ridiculously excessive and gives Fed critics, who already believe the central bank is too secretive, more ammunition to make their case.

Congress should act soon to ensure that the Fed, just as other public agencies are required to do, discloses its business in a timely manner.

REPRINTED FROM THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL.